Dems embrace immigration fight

Polls show that voters favor Republicans’ hard-line approach to immigration, and there’s virtually no chance that any immigration bill will pass before Congress adjourns for the fall campaign.

Yet two days before the Senate heads home, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is expected to introduce sweeping immigration legislation, a move seemingly designed to drive Hispanics and reform backers to the polls and remind them which party is still pushing for liberalized immigration laws.

Story Continued Below

Menendez’s comprehensive reform bill — which would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — will most likely die a quiet death at the end of this Congress, alongside another immigration measure known as the DREAM Act, which was blocked last week by Senate Republicans.

But Democratic strategists say there is still political wisdom in the party’s embracing, rather than running from, immigration measures during an election year.

“The conventional wisdom is that [immigration] is a bad issue for Democrats. That is wrong,” said one Democratic House aide familiar with the party’s strategy.

“The politicos in the Democratic Party said what we need to do is not talk about it and it will go away, but with 400,000 deportations of people who are not criminals, it is not going away.”

Menendez, chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, insisted his latest efforts are more about good policy than politics.

But he said his immigration plan and last week’s DREAM Act vote offer voters a clear choice on Nov. 2.

“If you look at all of the polls, overwhelmingly, people want to see a resolution of the problem. They want to see our system reformed,” Menendez told POLITICO Tuesday. “So clearly, you see the difference between those who are willing to move forward and get a reform and [those who are] not, and for the Hispanic community, clearly they understand who stands on their side and [who does] not.”

Republicans think the legislation is just a game to gin up the base, potentially in heavily Hispanic parts of the country.

The fall push for immigration reform is “for effect rather than reality,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who previously sponsored the DREAM Act but doesn’t support it now, called it nothing more than a “cynical ploy for votes.”

“Sooner or later, we’ve got to do it, but anything done in this time period is just for show,” Hatch told POLITICO. “Apparently, [Menendez] thinks there is some benefit, but it is cynical and it’s not right to do it at this point. And it’s very unlikely for it to have any success. In fact, it’s impossible.”

Even some pro-immigrant activists, like Marie Gonzalez of Kansas, an early advocate of the DREAM Act, say there’s little enthusiasm for comprehensive legislation, particularly just a week after the more narrow DREAM Act measure went down in defeat. The bill would provide a path to legalization for young, undocumented immigrants who attend college or join the military for two years.